


hairway to heaven

by paladarns



Series: hairdresser au [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, broganes, hairdresser au, keith hasn't gotten his hair cut in 3 years, keith was an orphan kid, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 09:43:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10806591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladarns/pseuds/paladarns
Summary: Keith hasn't cut his hair in 3 years. Gayness ensues.





	hairway to heaven

Keith hasn't gotten a hair cut in 3 years. Or, Keith hasn't gotten his hair cut by _someone else_ in 3 years. Ever since he left to go to college all he has done was trim his hair with kitchen scissors, with the instruction of a 16 year old white girl on youtube. He gave up after 2 years of having uneven ends and became accustomed to his bangs brushing against his eyelashes every time he blinked or moved his head too fast, or the ends of his hair tickling the back of his neck. He didn't care, and he actually got quite a lot of compliments wherever he went.

Until the hardships came.

The yanking, hair getting caught in branches and book bag zippers, wrapping itself around headphones and sweaty necks.

Keith was doing his daily run with Shiro around the block by his college campus when he felt a sharp tug on his ponytail as he ran past some frat boys. He stopped abruptly and glared back at them as they sped off, laughing.

"I swear to god people are just so immature sometimes," he grumbles to himself as he turns back to a shocked Shiro. "Keith. You need a haircut."

A three day protest and a lot of "I don't need a haircut"s and "Keith I can't even think of putting my fingers in your hair without them getting stuck GET YOUR HAIR CUT"s later, Shiro was almost literally dragging Keith down to the shop he worked at. Keith sat further back into the passenger seat and gripped his phone tighter as Shiro slipped out of the driver's side of the his car.

"We have some great cosmetologists in here ok? Don't be so nervous," Shiro says in an oddly calm tone, which makes Keith sink further back into the cushion of the seat. He looks away from Shiro and crosses his arms once Shiro opens the door. "Keith, you actually called those kids back at your campus immature but look at you now. Come on, Lance is great at dealing with long hair, you're going to be in good hands."

"Shiro, you know that it's not that I'm nervous, but that I _don't fucking need a haircut_." Keith whips his head around, tightening the seatbelt.

Shiro stares him down for what feels like hours. Shiro had always been a scary brother when Keith wouldn't listen, ever since Keith was 5. At that age, you'd barely find Keith afraid of anything. He thought he was the shit, until Shiro put him back in his place. Imagine a large (at the time to Keith) 12 year old narrowing his eyes down at Keith when he'd do something wrong or rude. Even now at the age of 21, Shiro still towered over Keith. The only difference between 5 year old Keith and 21 year old Keith is that he decided to not break in. He stared right into Shiro's eyes and tested the limits till he saw a glint of something. Something quick flashed in Shiro's eyes before Shiro slammed the car door and locked it. He backed up from the door and crossed his arms as he watched all hell happen.

Shiro knew how Keith felt about being in locked cars by himself. Or at least without the ability to unlock the door himself. Keith tried the car handle, tried pulling the lock up, tried salvaging the little air from his cracked window before soon he looked back into Shiro's eyes. "You motherfucker."

"Keith, I've been dealing with you for… practically all your life. I know you. You had this coming, so either say fine and we get you a haircut _or_ you can stay in the car and _suffocate_ ," Keith widens his eyes when he hears the words suffocate, and he knows it's just sibling cruelty, but he starts to pull harder on the car door handle.

Keith had always had a vague memory of suffocating in a closed in car, screaming alone in the dark. He doesn't know when it happened or how it happened, but his adoptive parents told him that he lost his biological parents that day. He doesn't _miss_ his parents, per se, but everyone expects him to have PTSD about them. His friends when growing up were always cautious of locking car doors, but Keith always dismissed them and said the locked door was just a stupid phobia.

And this stupid phobia always wins. Keith is on the verge of crying and breaking the car door handle before Shiro unlocks the door. When Keith opens the door, he takes a deep breath and steps out immediately. He doubled over with his hands on his knees and catches his breath. He feels a hand on the back of his neck and a voice: "I'm sorry Keith. You really need a haircut though, so now that you're out of the car there's no turning back."

Keith straightens up, shrugging the hand off his neck, and marches up the steps to the shop. Shiro follows slowly behind him and Keith reads the sign of the shop. _Hairo Dynamics_. Of course. Keith had only seen this shop a couple of times before when Shiro first gotten the job. He'd been working there for 4 years, a few years after he got out of university as a cosmetologist. He'd been going through a rough time after uni, he didn't know what to do with his degree, but he found this place soon enough. When Shiro had first gotten the job Keith was only 17, and Shiro suggested Keith help as a summer job. Fortunately, Keith was working at a bookstore that summer, so he declined Shiro's offer. Even if Keith wasn't a very big reader, he'd rather sort books than sweep up hair everyday.

Keith looks back to Shiro, who's patiently waiting for Keith to walk into the shop, and pathetically sighs in defeat when Shiro doesn't automatically say, "You don't have to go in, lets go."

He reaches for the door and wraps his hand around the handle, and as soon as he opens the door a loud jingle of a bell rings above his head. He winces a bit before going fully into the shop, only to see the shop is completely empty except for a loud "I'm coming!" booming from the back of the shop. Keith walks around the front of the shop, spotting a few couches surrounding a small table filled with magazines. To his right, there are columns of snacks in glass bowls and a coffee machine, while to his left is a huge abstract painting on the wall of a woman. "Hey Shiro, I didn't know you were coming in today," Keith quickly turns his attention to where the voice is coming from. The man who spoke is big and tall, maybe even taller than Shiro, with dark skin and and a bandana wrapped around his forehead. He beams at Shiro as he drops a box on a counter. He starts pulling out packets of synthetic hair, rambling on about, "The new extensions came in the morning, but they forgot to pack one of the reds. I ordered 15 reds and we got 14. Oh well, they switched it out with an auburn color…"

"Hey, Hunk, has Lance come by yet? I have a, um…" Shiro trails off, his eyes flicking at Keith's hair, "difficult appointment."

 _Hunk_ drops the empty box underneath the counter all the packets are on and hums. "I think he's gonna come in soon. I think I remember him saying something about one of his sisters having a crisis...?" He looks over to see Shiro and catches eyes with Keith and immediately lights up. "You're Shiro's brother, right? Nice to meet you," He smiles and reaches out a hand, which Keith clumsily takes.

Hunk proceeds to show Keith around, Shiro cleaning up around the shop. (Hunk is one of Keith's new favorite people, right after Shiro, he gave Keith access to the employee coffee machine anytime. ) When Keith makes his way to the front, he hears a door open and close in the back, and high heel clicks coming to the front. He turns to see Allura, who he has come to know like a sister, set down her bag in a spinning chair. She doesn't seem to notice him until he sits down on the couch from earlier.

She looks up with blue eyes wide, her curly hair falling down her shoulders easily. "Oh Keith! I did not notice you. Are you here to help? If so, can you start with-"

"Actually, Allura, I'm getting a haircut," Keith sighs, absently pulling a strand of hair down, a comforting pain through his scalp.

"Oh... I didn't expect that. Did Shiro bring you?" Of course, Allura would ask that question. If it were Keith, he'd be looking for his best friend too. (If he had one.)

"Yeah, I think he went into one of the closets over there," Keith points to a random closet before Allura can accuse him of not actually knowing where Shiro is. Allura fiddles with her hair into a bun and she sashays towards the closet he pointed to. Keith has known Allura since he was 11 and Shiro had just entered college. Shiro had brought Allura home to meet his parents during Christmas Break and everyone immediately loved Allura and brought her into the family. But when his parents had assumed they were dating, Allura had to break it to them that she and Shiro were just friends and Allura was interested in a girl. She felt bad for days that break, but they all were still just as excited to hear her gush over her crush.

20 minutes pass when Keith finally looks up from his phone to see 2 more employees walk in. One is a girl with hair up to her ears and an undercut, standing painfully shorter than the other. The other is lean and lanky with brown, short hair and brown skin. He slides off his jacket and slings it over same chair Allura placed her bags in. He doesn't acknowledge Keith, he guesses no one really cares that he's there. The boy walks to another counter and start setting up. The short girl sighs and turns until she see Keith awkwardly sitting with his hands trapped underneath his thighs. "Um, welcome to Hairo Dynamics. You here with Shiro?" She walks up toward the couch but just straightens out the magazines on the table in front of them.

"Yeah, I am. He's forcing me to get a haircut."

"Ugh, I know how that feels," She scoffs and crosses her arms, "But trust me, cutting it all off in the end helps a lot. I mean, this used to be all the way down _here_ ," She demonstrates with her hands from the top of her head to wavering her hands around the top of her high waisted shorts. On Allura, the shorts would've been too small on her, but on this girl the shorts almost reach to her knees.

"Woah," Keith breathes as he nods his head at the length.

"My name's Katie, but call me Pidge," She smirks and offers a fist, and Keith has never done this before but happily bumps her fist awkwardly.

"Keith. So how old are you?"

"I'm 19, I'm not even done with school but Coran still gave me this job. I guess this would be practice if I wanted to still be a hair stylist after college."

"Coran?" Keith raises a brow.

"Our boss. He's cool. Sometimes," She shrugs and walks away with her arms deep into her pockets, heading towards the back to fetch a broom.

Keith looks away from Pidge to scan the room again, he spots the boy from before, who is eagerly grabbing donuts and a cup of coffee from the snack column. God, a cup of coffee would really be nice.

"Ok, Lance, your new project!" Shiro claps a hand on Keith and he jumps, glaring back at Shiro.

The boy, startled, looks over to Shiro with 2 donut holes shoved in his cheeks like a chipmunk. "Huh?"

"This is my little brother, and he's in desperate need of a haircut, so I took him to the right guy."

Lance downs the donut holes quickly before smiling widely at Shiro and Keith. "Why, thank you Shiro. I mean, I'm the best that there is," He places a hand over his heart before turning fully to Keith. "Ok, let's get you shampooed, buddy."

When laying back into the chair in front of the sink, Lance pulls Keith's hair apart as he sprays lukewarm water into his scalp, "Holy, your hair is so matted. Who in this day in age has a mullet? We've got a Bobby Ray Cyrus on our hands."

"Aren't you supposed to not be rude to customers?" Keith hears himself say, but he doesn't pay attention to the face of shock Lance gives him.

"Who said I was being rude? These are facts buddy."

"Can you stop calling me buddy?" Keith hisses.

"What?" Lance stops combing through Keith's hair to stare him in the eyes.

"Don't call me buddy, I'm not a dog."

"Oh, ok. Sorry, man," Lance lifts his hands in a defensive mode as if to be condescending, but Keith doesn't care enough to go off. He just wants it to be over already.

Lance squirts deep conditioner into Keith's hair after washing it and rinsing, lathering and making Keith's scalp feel open and minty. Lance washes the foam off his hands and leans against the counter across from Keith.

"How old are you?" He breaks the silence. Keith looks towards Lance, hesitates and replies, "21."

"Ah, you're still in college? What are you studying?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm studying astronomy," Keith looks back up from Lance, getting more comfortable in his seat.

"Cool."

"And what about you?" Keith doesn't mean to say it in such a defensive tone, but it still seems to put Lance on edge. "What do you mean?"

"Like, are you still in college?"

Lance visibly relaxes and chuckles, "Oh, no. I graduated a while ago. 2 years of cosmetology school. I could be doing makeup and hair for celebrities, but I just wanted a low key job for now," Lance fidgets with some radio in the corner beside him before some quiet music hums throughout the speakers in the shop.

Keith glances down at Lance as he pushes off the counter and bobs his head and sways his hips to the music. He starts humming along to the melody as he trots around behind the sink and starts rinsing Keith's hair. He starts singing, hitting every impeccable high and low note, but over exaggerated. Keith bends his head back further into the sink to look at Lance. His eyes are closed and he's shaking his head to the song. He opens his eyes to catch Keith's before he belts out the last note, bringing up the pull out faucet head to his lips like a mic. But the water was still running. He drops the faucet head as fast as he picks it up and turns off the water, whispering, "Shitshitshitshit." He grabs a towel and wipes up the floor while laughter bubbles up in Keith's chest.

Lance scrubs the floor and glares back at Keith while he doubles over in his seat, dying of laughter. He doesn't care that water is dripping down his back. He looks back at Lance's face, which is beet red and screwed up, which makes Keith laugh even harder. Soon enough, they're both giggling until their stomachs hurt.

Lance hurls himself off the ground and throws the towel into a nearby corner, still catching his breath from the laughter. Keith lays back into the chair and sighs, trying to look Lance back in the eyes.

He stares into deep blue, almost black eyes, and it's like he gets lost. Until Keith sneezes.

"Um, yeah we should dry your hair before you catch a cold," Lance awkwardly scratches the back of his head and grabs a towel from the cabinet behind him. Keith sits up and Lance throws the towel over his head, fluffing it up.

Keith and Lance both walk back towards the front of the shop where Lance directs Keith to his chair. Lance whips out a hair dryer and Keith busies himself with his phone. After 20 minutes of blow drying and loud asked questions, Lance is carrying a barber's cape and some scissors in his hands, and Keith takes a sharp intake of breath with every step Lance takes towards him.

Shiro didn't have any more customers for the day, so he watched as all hell happened. Again. Shiro was quite amused at watching Keith dodge every time Lance would try to tie the sheet around his neck.

"Lance, don't, Shiro I don't want to do this anymore, no thanks," Keith hyperventilates as he covers his head.

Shiro only chuckles. Keith tears his hands away from his head and sits up straight, yelling, "Why are you laughing help-"

Keith gags as Lance pulls the cape around his neck and ties, a victorious smile painted across his face. He pulls back and props his hands up on his hips, says, "And that's how you do it Lance style."

Keith looks away shamefully in defeat. "That was stupid."

Lance pushes Keith's hair up into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Keith is squeezing Allura's hand like it's his lifeline. "Are you ready?" Her comforting voice goes through and out his ears. "Just cut it," He grinds out through clenched teeth.

"Don't worry, it's all comin' off in just a few clips," Lance tries to (he really does try) comfort Keith by rubbing some tension out of his shoulder. Keith is not one for one-on-one physical contact with strangers, but he's too much in distress to notice. His shoulders unhinge themselves though his brain is still wracking up.

"Don't move," Lance brings his scissors up to the hair, Keith can feel the cold metal of the scissors tap his neck.

"Alrighty."

Keith peels his eyes open one by one not a second later, "It that it?"

"Yup," Shiro's voice comes through, and clap on the shoulder from him. Lance's hand appears in front of Keith's face, and a thick ponytail with 2 inches of hair dangles from his fingers. Keith grabs his hair and just breathes out, "Woah."

He feels the back of his neck. He can feel his neck. It's cold there. "Woah."

Lance continued to trim his hair and blow away the uneven strands of hair with the blow dryer.

"Ok, Keith. This is the moment of truth. You ready?" Lance grips the sides of the chair and gets down into Keith's ear, earning a shiver from him.

"I'm ready."

Keith braces himself as Lance turns his hair towards the mirror, and Keith eyes grow wide and his mouth hangs.

He looks almost the same, except without a mullet and his bangs still touch his eyelashes, but now they're thinner. Shiro comes over to stand behind Keith's chair, next to Lance, and ruffles Keith's hair. "See, I told you you were in good hands," Keith smoothes down the hair Shiro ruffled and turn towards Allura as she walks towards his left side. She examines his hair, strand by strand, until she straightens up and looks at Keith in the mirror. "You do look quite handsome."

"I agree with Allura, you look hot," Lance pipes up, and Keith doesn't have a time to react when Pidge and Hunk walk into the scene and the gasps begin.

Soon enough, Keith's hair is touched at least 20 times by each employee, and soon it's time to say goodbye. As they're walking out the door, Keith's arms full of snacks and coffee, Lance sees them away. Shiro walks ahead to the car while Keith lingers around Lance a little longer.

"Um, so if you need a haircut again, um, just call-"

"Do I have to have a haircut every time I see you? Can't we hang out one day?" Keith interrupts. He _almost_ knows exactly what he's doing.

Lance snaps his gaze up from the ground, answering, "Yeah, sure, um, here's my number," And scribbling numbers on a sheet of paper stashed from his pocket. Keith holds out a free hand and Lance cautiously gives it to him. Their hands touch. _Don't make it awkward._ Keith smiles as he draws his hand away, and backs up, minding his feet as he walks down the stairs.

"Bye."

"See ya," Lance seems to regain his confidence and winks quickly before turning back into the shop.

Keith sits in the passengers seat and turns immediately to shoot daggers in to Shiro with his eyes. Shiro raises an eyebrow, "What?"

"You brought me here just so I can meet your hot coworker," He hisses, furrowing his eyebrows.

"What can I say, I did it _Shiro style_." Keith starts snorting into his coffee and Shiro starts to drive off away from the shop.

"That was stupid."

**Author's Note:**

> what is this flurry??? i hope you all enjoyed this shit i slapped on a digital page, i'm probably going to make this au into a series!
> 
> also some things:  
> •keith is 21 and shiro is 28 so they are 7 years apart in age  
> •keith and his parents got into a car accident when keith was a toddler  
> •shiro's biological parents adopted keith when keith was 4  
> •pidge does the alternative hair styles and shiro dyes hair  
> •lance deals with long hair and mainly trims  
> •allura and hunk BRAID HAIR I LOVE THEM  
> •whenever coran comes in he cuts facial hair IN STYLE with like a suit on for no reason
> 
> EDIT: i took shallura out because i don’t like the ship anymore! sorry to all those who liked the relationship in this tho!
> 
> alright thanks for reading! byeeeee


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